Loose Lips „Machine Nuggets“ Interview + Video (E-75 mod)

In October 2017 G and eorge Lazenbleep and Medallion Man headed to Dresden, for the Circuitcontrol festival, a week of hacking, soldering and live performance. In the first of a series of articles from the festival, we met up with Jacob Korn. I won’t talk about his recording career, as I’m much more interested in his work as an engineer.

We met 4 years ago in Dresden, and I remember spending an evening together geeking out about an 808 kick drum circuit I built. We talked about his 909 at the time, and I couldn’t believe anyone would be crazy enough to mod one!

More recently I’ve kept an eye on his work with the Zaquencer and his huge DIY modular synth. We hooked up and did a Loose lips radio show together, then dived straight in to ‘the beast’. I’ve a special place in my heart for the Yamaha Electone range of keyboards, as a child I attended the ‘Electone School of Music’, learning my chops on 2 tier keyboards with bass pedals and auto accompaniment. The E75 is really unbelievable though, and is a wholly different beast to the DSP based keyboards I played. Using analogue electronics (partially the same as in the CS80!), discrete components, filters, envelopes, chorus, wavetables and an actual spring reverb, to make one of the most overengineered analogue polysynths ever made.

Once again, Jacob has showed what an incredible engineer he is by modifying it, using a combination of intuition and notes from a fellow hacker found on the internet. The E75 in question also features heavily, and was the inspiration for, Jacob’s latest release on Uncanny Valley.

So here it is, make sure you wear headphones, Cheers to Jacob, Fred and Alvin.